Morning Tea
I have a new tea kettle. Well, it’s not really a “tea” kettle, it’s a water kettle but to me it’s a tea kettle. It’s electric and it’s positively brilliant! It’s been on my Amazon wish list for a while but I’ve been hesitating to buy it. Now that I finally have it I wonder why I waited so long. There’s several kinds out there but I chose the Braun WK200W Electric Water Kettle
I first saw these sort of kettles when I went to England and I’ll admit I was a bit disillusioned when I did. I mean, here I was in England and they were using electric kettles?? Weren’t the English famous for their tea and didn’t every little girl dream of going to England and having a very proper cup of tea poured from a very proper teapot? Afterall it was Jane who taught me (in Seattle several years ago) to warm the pot before making tea and yet there I was at Jane’s very house in England and she was using an electric kettle and pouring the water straightaway into mugs with tea bags - oh the shame of it! By golly Kathryn used one too and oh dear there was even a small one in my room at the bed and breakfast in Ambleside! What gives - no actual tea pots in England? How could this be?
Of course I am being overly dramtic and Kathryn and I were served tea in a “proper” pot when we had high tea at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford but truth be told those electric kettles were a tad of a shock to me. But I’m over it now and I am throughly enjoying my new kettle as it means no more leavng the water to boil away and burn the pot (oh how many times have I done that?!) and the water is ready for tea or oatmeal in a snap.
And now it’s time to go and make breakfast. . .
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Jun 25, 2006 - 10:06:14You can now consider yourself an honorary Englishwoman :). And of course, you can always boil the water in the kettle and then put it into a teapot.
Me again … I’ve always been puzzled as to why electric kettles are such a British thing. An American friend of mine had never seen one before she married her English husband. A tad unfortunate, that. The first time she tried to boil the electric kettle she put it on the hob and was startled by the smell of burning rubber as the feet of the kettle melted!
[Oh dear! I'm assuming the "hob" is the stove top burner? I haven't done that yet but with Mommy brain you never know. :-/ --Michele]
I was amazed by electric kettles when I visited England, and perhaps it is time for me to get one, too, since I just burned out the bottom of my favorite saucepan trying to make a cup of tea and then being, naturally, distracted here and there around the house
LOL! Add me to the club! Disillusioned as well. (and suntea drinker now!)
My mom was English and I grew up with an electric kettle. At the time she had to buy the kettle in Canada. She could not find one in the U.S. or at least not one to her liking. She only used a teapot when friends came over.
We also use electric kettles here in Germany. Just my 2 cents!